More Bad News for Do Nothing Republicans

We’ve been saying it all along, but this article in Roll Call presents some pretty stark numbers of exactly how fruitless the Republican-led House has been:

“During the first session of the 112th Congress, the House and the Senate each passed the fewest number of bills in any Congress since 1947, when statistics about lawmaking activity began being compiled. In addition, the number of laws enacted was 90, two more than the previous low of 88 in the 104th Congress in 1995. The pace in the 112th's second session has, if anything, slowed further.”

“Even taking into account bills the House and Senate are expected to pass in the upcoming lame-duck session, the current Congress could easily have the lowest level of legislative activity since statistics began being tabulated.”

Here’s a look at the statistics, showing a record level of inactivity:

“As of July 31, the House has passed 636 measures, including bills and resolutions... The previous low for total measures passed is 1,834 in the 104th Congress.”

“The number of bills passed in the first session of the 112th Congress, the lowest ever, is about one-third of the average number of bills passed in first sessions of Congresses and less than half of the median number passed in the first sessions of Congresses since 1947.”

“The House of the 112th Congress has held 444 roll-call votes, compared with 1,120 in the 110th Congress, 522 in the 104th Congress and 163 in the 80th Congress.”

And if anyone thought the Do Nothing Republicans would change course, think again. We have a long list of critical issues that Congress must address, including the expiration of the Farm Bill, which includes important drought relief, the upcoming fiscal cliff, and the expiration of middle class tax cuts. But what have we done in the House this week? Wasted time on partisan message bills.

We wouldn’t want to be Republicans trying to explain that track record to the American people.